In recent years, in the production of semiconductor elements and liquid crystal display elements, advances in lithography techniques have lead to rapid progress in the field of miniaturization. Typically, these miniaturization techniques involve shortening the wavelength of the exposure light source. Conventionally, ultraviolet radiation typified by g-line and i-line radiation has been used, but nowadays KrF excimer lasers (248 nm) are the main light source used in mass production, and ArF excimer lasers (193 nm) are now also starting to be introduced in mass production. Furthermore, research is also being conducted into lithography techniques that use F2 excimer lasers (157 nm), EUV (extreme ultraviolet radiation), and EB (electron beams) and the like as the light source (radiation source).
Resists for use with these types of short wavelength light sources require a high resolution capable of reproducing patterns of minute dimensions, and a high level of sensitivity relative to these types of short wavelength light sources. One example of a known resist that satisfies these conditions is a chemically amplified resist, which includes a base resin and an acid generator (hereafter referred to as a PAG) that generates acid upon exposure, and these chemically amplified resists include positive resists in which the alkali solubility of the exposed portions increases, and negative resists in which the alkali solubility of the exposed portions decreases.
Until recently, polyhydroxystyrene (PHS) or derivative resins thereof in which the hydroxyl groups have been protected with acid-dissociable, dissolution-inhibiting groups (PHS-based resins), which exhibit high transparency relative to a KrF excimer laser (248 nm), have been used as the base resin component of chemically amplified resists. However because PHS-based resins contain aromatic rings such as benzene rings, their transparency is inadequate for light with wavelengths shorter than 248 nm, such as light of 193 nm. Accordingly, chemically amplified resists that use a PHS-based resin as the base resin component suffer from low levels of resolution in processes that, for example, use light of 193 nm.
As a result, resins that contain structural units derived from (meth)acrylate esters within the principal chain (acrylic resins) are now widely used as base resins for resists that use ArF excimer laser lithography, as they offer excellent transparency in the vicinity of 193 nm (for example, see patent reference 1 and patent reference 2).
[Patent Reference 1]
Japanese Patent (Granted) Publication No. 2,881,969
[Patent Reference 2]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2003-241385